History FairytaleMotifs / RWBY

* Weiss Schnee is inspired by ''Literature/SnowWhite''. The translation of her name from German to English is "White Snow", and the song she sings in the introductory "White" trailer heavily alludes to the Magic Mirror in the original fairytale.

* Weiss Schnee is inspired by ''Literature/SnowWhite''. The translation of her name from German to English is "White Snow", and the song she sings in the introductory "White" trailer heavily alludes to the Magic Mirror in the original fairytale. Her loyal family servant is Klein Sieben, which translates from German as "Little Seven". He is all seven of the Dwarves; he can switch between multiple different personalities, each with its own colour-coded eye colour, each personality is based on one of Disney's version of the Seven Dwarves, and his profession being a doctor brings to mind Doc.

* Winter Schnee is based on Literature/TheSnowQueen. She is a highly regarded member of the Atlesian military, General Ironwood's right hand, and the eventual leader of the Ace-Ops, making her a figurative "queen" in the military. She eventually gains magic by becoming the Winter Maiden, just like the Snow Queen had magic, and uses this magic to control ice and wind, like the Snow Queen. She is respected and deferred to as a Maiden, similar to the reaction to a monarch. Her Semblance creates glyphs shaped like snowflakes, which the Snow Queen used to spy on people. Her color scheme is primarily white, and her given name calls to mind ice and snow.

* Winter Schnee is based on Literature/TheSnowQueen. She is a highly regarded member of the Atlesian military, General Ironwood's right hand, and the eventual leader of the Ace-Ops, making her a figurative "queen" in the military. She eventually gains magic by becoming the Winter Maiden, just like the Snow Queen, and her respect as the Maiden is similar to that of a monarch. Her Semblance creates glyphs shaped like snowflakes, which the Snow Queen used to spy on people. She uses her Maiden powers to control ice and wind, like the Snow Queen. Her color scheme is primarily white, and her given name calls to mind ice and snow.

* Hazel Rainart's inspiration is Hansel from ''Literature/HanselAndGretel'', a fairy tale about two siblings who are lured into a trap by a wicked witch who wants to eat them, but who manage to escape by outwitting her. Hazel is intended to be an exploration of what might happen to Hansel if Gretel died. His story is that his sister Gretchen entered Beacon Academy to train under Ozpin even though Hazel objected on the grounds that she was still a child. Ozpin tells Oscar that she died on a training mission, but Hazel indicates that she wasn't ready for the level of training Beacon expected of her and that Ozpin has a habit of deliberately putting children in danger to benefit himself. He regards Ozpin as evil and monstrous, which is exactly how Hansel and Gretel regarded the witch who tried to kill them. Both the names ''Gretel'' and ''Gretchen'' are diminutive forms of the same name in the same language (specifically, the German name ''Margarete'').

* Klein Sieben is based off [[Literature/SnowWhite the Seven Dwarves]], being a rather short man who has seven alternate personalities that correspond to the Seven Dwarves in the [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarves]]. His name, translated from German, means "small seven", and he has a parental, protective relationship with Weiss, who alludes to Snow White.

* Salem's back story is inspired by ''Literature/{{Rapunzel}}'', as Salem was imprisoned in a tower by her guardian and fell in love with her rescuer. The story based on Salem and Ozma's romance is simply called "The GirlInTheTower". Salem also plays a secondary role as "FairyGodmother" to Cinder, promising to help Cinder achieve her desires, just as Cinderella's fairy godmother did.

!!!Chapter 1
* When the team first meets Pietro in his pharmacy in Mantle, he tells them he's working on "shoes that make you dance", a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's ''Literature/TheRedShoes'' and the red-hot iron shoes from ''Literature/SnowWhite''.

* When the team first meets Pietro in his pharmacy in Mantle, he tells them he's working on "shoes that make you dance", a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's ''Literature/TheRedShoes''.

* When the team first meets Pietro in his pharmacy in Mantle, he tells them he's working on "shoes that make you dance", a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's ''TheRedShoes''.

!!Team JNPR
* Jaune Arc as the Rusted Knight of Ever After alludes to the White Knight and the Red Knight from ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland''[='s=] sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. When Jaune met Alyx and her brother Lewis, he tried to help them which was also written in the in-universe fairytale ''The Girl Who Fell Through the World'' by Alyx just like how the White Knight helps Alice. Alyx viewed Jaune as an enemy thinking he was trying to stop her from returning to Remnant like how the Red Knight was Alice's enemy in his attempt to capture her. Jaune's armor and title as the Rusted Knight also alludes to both; Jaune's armor was originally predominantly white but his time waiting in the Ever After made it worn and rusted and "rust" etymologically means "red". In a meta sense they somewhat parallel; the White Knight is theorized by some scholars to be the AuthorAvatar of Creator/LewisCarroll, Jaune is voiced by Creator/MilesLuna who is also a writer for the RWBY series.

* Jaune Arc as the Rusted Knight alludes to the White Knight from ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland''[='s=] sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. In a meta sense they somewhat parallel; the White Knight is theorized by some scholars to be the AuthorAvatar of Creator/LewisCarroll, Jaune is voiced by Creator/MilesLuna who is also a writer for the RWBY series.

'''First Members see episodes 1 week before public release. As a courtesy, please do not trope them for 1 week until they have been released to the general public. Please only trope the episodes that have been released to the general public. For more information, please visit the RWBY Forum thread.'''

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This page is to capture all the references in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' that are made to {{Fairytale Motifs}}.

This page is to capture all the references in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' that are made to {{Fairytale Motifs}} (excluding Mythology references).

This page is to capture all the references in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'' that are made to fairytale motifs (excluding Mythology references).

* For references to myths, please see MythicalMotifs.{{RWBY)).

Do not include references to other works on this page. ShoutOut.{{RWBY}} has its own page for collecting those references.

* Adam Taurus is based on allusions found in ''WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast''. He is supposed to be initially seen as the Beast to Blake's Beauty. As the show digs a little deeper into him, he's supposed to raise the question of whether he might be Gaston instead of the Beast. His weapon, Wilt & Blush, references the cursed rose.

[[folder:Volume 6]]
!!Volume 6
!!!Chapter 3
* As the episode reveals, the world was created by a pair of brother gods, which may allude to how the primary inspiration for the show's fairytale motifs are those collected by the ''Brothers'' Grimm.
[[/folder]]

* When the team first meets Pietro in his pharmacy in Mantle, he tells them he's working on "shoes that make you dance", a reference to Hans Christian Andersen's ''TheRedShoes''. This overlaps with the overarching ''Wizard of Oz'' theme in that ever since the movie, Dorothy is typically referred to as having [[TitleDrop ruby]] red shoes.

* The main characters are Huntsmen, warriors who defend the kingdoms against creatures of Grimm. The Huntsman is an archetypical character in a lot of fairytales, such as ''Literature/LittleRedRidingHood'' or ''Literature/SnowWhite''.
* Grimm are all based on fairly common fairytale monsters, such as wolves and bears, although with a few literary allusions. The name "Grimm" is based on Creator/TheBrothersGrimm.

* Grimm are all based on fairly common fairytale monsters, such as wolves and bears, although with a few literary allusions. The name "Grimm" is, of course, based on Creator/TheBrothersGrimm.

!!Team JNPR
* The running theme of JNPR is that they're all based on figures that dressed as another gender at one point, which carries through to them all being another gender from their inspirations.
* Jaune Arc is based on the archetypical KnightInShiningArmor / PrinceCharming character. He carries a sword and shield that doubles as an AncestralWeapon and does his best to follow OldSchoolChivalry. His name is a reference to Jeanne of Arc, a famous KnightInShiningArmor. He ends up being a deconstruction, however. While being a NiceGuy is appreciated, the fact that every woman around him are more than capable of handling themselves means that his CasanovaWannabe attitude makes him come across as more of a DoggedNiceGuy. His connections to Jeanne d'Arc also ties into his bully, Cardin Winchester, who stands in for ''Cardin''al Henry Beaufort, who was part of the jury that sentenced Jeanne to death. Jeanne never hid her gender, but dressed as a man for safety during travel (this is actually what got her executed).
* Nora Valkyrie is not based on a fairytale character, but on a character from Myth/NorseMythology. Specifically, Thor. She's a redhead who wields a massive hammer as her primary weapon. Nora is also the feminine form of Thor in Norse language, while Valkyrie are minor gods of battle (though they are unaffiliated with Thor). Her semblance is electricity-based, and Thor was the god of thunder and lightning. Thor once dressed up as the goddess Freya in order to trick the jotun Thrym to give back Mjølner.
* Pyrrha Nikos is based on the quasi-historical Greek hero Achilles, the greatest warrior in all of Greece at the time of the Trojan war. Like him, Pyrrha is TheAce and nearly unbeatable in combat. She slightly breaks the naming trend by instead being named for another Greek figure, king Pyrrhus of Epirus, the TropeNamer for PyrrhicVictory, and for Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Achilles dressed as a woman to avoid the Trojan war, but was found out by clever Odysseus.
* Lie Ren is based on Hua Mulan, the Chinese folkloric figure who dressed in men's clothes to go to war in her father's place. His father's dying words are for him to be brave, which alludes to Mulan's parents' support of her decision to join the army. Mulan's claim to fame is dressing as a man to go to war.

* The main characters are Huntsmen, warriors who defend the kingdoms against creatures of Grimm. The Huntsman is an archetypical character in a lot of fairytales, though most famous from ''Little Red Riding Hood''.